PvP is in much better condition than it was during the Dark Reign of Graves And The Evil Undead (feat MPD), and assuming that the upcoming RWL doesn't spoil that too badly, we might look forward to better battles in the queues for the rest of the expansion.

What incentives might Blizzard provide for that, without significant new development?

I have a desert of nearly 4000 battles to cross before the next achievement. I'm not averse to popping in for a few, but there's nothing to concentrate my attention.

Family Familiar is a great success. It popped into my mind to day that a related set of achievements, like:

Magic Mauler: Win 12 PvP pet battles through Find Battle with a full team of unique level 25 Magic pets.

with a suitable wrap-up achievement, would be just the thing.

Yes, it is a major handicap to try to win with, say, all Magic. Cue the sound of heads banging against walls.

Sure, but it wouldn't be 12 in a row. No Time To Heal, now that's tough these days.

I actually ran into someone running two Lanterns and a Wisp last week, with the gimmick Flash->Light. Over the course of hundreds of battles, 12 wins for each Family team is not unreasonable.

Undead would be a breeze. Humanoid, Mech, Elemental would be fine. Beasts and Flyers should be mostly OK. I think Dragonkin, as well. Critters might be a problem, since you couldn't run the obvious three rabbits. And Magic.

Granted, with some families, you're doomed if you get one wrong draw. I once tried a triple-mech team that was reduced to scrap metal by one [pet]Shard of Cyrukh[/pet].

Although I like the general idea of an achievement like this, it's probably a bit harsh to demand 120 PvP wins in total. I'd say five wins for each pet family sounds more in line with similar achievements unless you want to mirror the atrocious PvE one.

One thing bothers me a bit about your post. By what metric can you declare the Family Familiar achievement a "great success"? I don't mind a little hyperbole here and there in postings, but we actually don't know yet, how popular that achievement will be. In the highly likely case that Blizzard fixes the bug that allows people to battle the trainers over and over with different families, this achievement could become really unpopular with the general player base.

Another idea for a PvP pet battle might be winning a certain amount of matches with a team only consisting of pets that are acquired via PvP once we have some more of them.

Sarajiel wrote:One thing bothers me a bit about your post. By what metric can you declare the Family Familiar achievement a "great success"?

It's completely subjective. Even if Blizzard were to release stats of how many people completed Family Familiar, it really wouldn't say much about overall player experience.

That being said, however, it's given collectors and battlers direction and a challenge. A task in Pet Battles that's not the usual 'mindlessly collect this, battle that', but requires more thought and planning.

The consensus I'm getting from the community so far is largely positive. Most seem to find the general idea of the achievement interesting/fun, but the execution of said achievement (randomly rotating trainers and days where there are zero trainers up) isn't looked upon as favorably.

Sarajiel wrote:In the highly likely case that Blizzard fixes the bug that allows people to battle the trainers over and over with different families, this achievement could become really unpopular with the general player base.

This was noted during Legion Beta and it's been confirmed that this is not a bug. Unless things have changed since testing, there won't be a direct "fix" for it. But I should mention that Patch 7.1 might break this strategy of battling the trainers repeatedly since alt toons will be able to unlock World Quests much, much more easily/quickly.

Sorry for going off topic.

I don't pet PVP but I like the idea of an achievement similar to Family Familiar for PVP. 5-10 wins with an all 1 family-type team would definitely be a challenge.

I'm completely biased in terms of a reward - I'd prefer a new pet to NOT be the reward for something like this, simply because I would probably never get it. I think the reward should relate to pet PVP either directly or indirectly somehow, but I can't really think of anything that would fit.

If the reward is inciting enough though, more might attempt the achievement which could mean a more diverse PVP environment. Higher chance of running to teams of all one family, and if you're lucky, one that your team is strong against!

And - let's look at the Big Picture - I'm enjoying it, so that's a success.

As Quintessence says, the RNG appearance is not the highlight of the achievement, but I suppose they have to gate it somehow, or a lot of us would be grinding strats until our brains fell out in the first days.

As for the number of battles, in the 4000 between 1000 and 5000, 120 doesn't feel like a lot.

Rewards? I don't really mind. The achievements themselves would be something to aim for. Maybe a title at the end? not sure what that would be - The Frustrated?

Gráinne wrote:Sure, but it wouldn't be 12 in a row. No Time To Heal, now that's tough these days.
...
Undead would be a breeze. Humanoid, Mech, Elemental would be fine. Beasts and Flyers should be mostly OK. I think Dragonkin, as well. Critters might be a problem, since you couldn't run the obvious three rabbits. And Magic.
...

Three Bugs Bunnies?

Are you crazy?

You could at least use a Gleamhoof Fawn, or an Infected Fawn in there, and these Critters might become your favorite. Go fight a few in Valsharah, so you can learn them some. They are as good for helping level off my pets by taking down the ones that the levelling pet would have a hard time with!

Not crazy at all. As triples go, three rabbits is a very viable PvP team. Of course, as with most triples, you take the risk of running into a team you have no answer for. AoE, or Humanoids, or Healing teams, are going to be a brick wall.

Infected Fawn is viable, but that's Undead, so scratch that.

I did pick up a Gleamhoof P/P first thing, and I can see possibilities for it with Nature's Ward, Stampede, Headbutt. I find it harder to see it as a team healer in PvP when the FW GP is available, though.

Quintessence wrote:
The consensus I'm getting from the community so far is largely positive. Most seem to find the general idea of the achievement interesting/fun, but the execution of said achievement (randomly rotating trainers and days where there are zero trainers up) isn't looked upon as favorably.

So much this! I really do like the idea--it's a unique challenge, and it's something that can give even those of us with extensive collections something hard to work on. However, sitting down to fight the same trainer multiple times while coming up with strategies is both time-consuming and exhausting. I enjoy trying to complete these kinds of things without guides, but yesterday I completely caved for Bredda. It was almost 9 and did want to get to bed at *some* point. Without knowing how long it would be until she popped up again, I felt like I really should stay up and do it.

Back to the original question: I like the idea of a smaller number of required wins. That's a fairly tough achievement for some families, so hopefully this would keep people from tearing out their hair. I agree with not having a pet behind this simply because I know a good-size portion of pet collectors do not enjoy PvP. A title sounds good.